Town Square

Unemployment rates continue to drop

The California unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent in March, down from 9.6 percent in February and well below a year ago when it stood at 10.7 percent, according to the California Employment Development Department.

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Posted by Julia
a resident of Alamo
on Apr 22, 2013 at 9:19 am

Dear Naive...Keep believing the BS they feed you. Once you take the first pill they feed you the rest of them will be much easier to swallow. Wake up folks, it's just political propaganda and you take it hook line and sinker..

Posted by PSMacintosh
a resident of Danville
on Apr 22, 2013 at 10:01 am

I want to thank the Democrats and Obama!
They deserve the credit for this lowered unemployment rate for their smart work in taking the right concrete actions to save, strengthen, and build a sound, long-lasting economic foundation for now and for the future.
Okay, so I'm being sarcastic!
........What was anyway that the Dems did that was so good for the economy?
What was the legislative action that made the economic foundation better and more stable?
Oh, yeah. They waited it out. They lived to fight another day. They will get to write their revisionist history (and claim themselves the obvious saviours of the world).
They outlasted the dep/resession .........and waited for the businesses who survived to keep things going (in spite of the other shoe yet to fall in the way of upcoming higher and additional taxes).
That......and their spending injection of millions for more government jobs and contracts to hire a few more workers for a short-term blip on the unemployment screen.
Someday......all jobs will be government jobs!
Hurray for the Bullet Train....take it straight in the head!

I understand that "facts" have no place in the reality-free right wing zone inhabited by the above posters, but for those interested in the real world - yes, the past four years have seen the largest **reduction** in public sector employment since the aftermath of WWII, all of which has been offset by job gains in private enterprise.

Posted by Conservator
a resident of Danville
on Apr 22, 2013 at 7:42 pm

@cjg,

If your following Julia visceral logic, you've tuned in much too late in the day. Unsupervised hours to surf the web at the home are much earlier in day.

If one wants to get to the heart of Mr. Apple's comments, it comes down to current monetary policy and it's intrinsic influence to drive the returning as well as nascent investment back into equities away from traditional fixed income and cash vehicles. This has had the undeniable impact of energizing the portfolios of those that stayed 'in' as well as providing a mezzanine level for housing price inflation. All facts that are much easier to verify then Julia's caustic opinions on the employment market she so values to opine upon...

The worst part about these figures is that they aren't true! The unemployment numbers provided by the government don't count the people who aren't receiving EDD benefits because they've been unemployed for too long. They only track who they're paying. These numbers are not an accurate representation of the true unemployment numbers. You can be assured that these numbers are much higher than anyone is willing to admit.

You know, to this ol' Boomer, these plaintive cries brought up the memory of Janis Joplin's great tune, I Need a Man to Love: Web Link

No, no, know it just can't be,
No it just can't be,
There's got to be some kind of answer.
No, it just can't be,
And everywhere I look, there's none around.
No it just can't be,
Whoa, it can't be!
No it just can't be, oh no!
Whoa, hear me now.

I mean, PS tries grafting some some bad facts onto poor economics, because it just can't be.

Posted by Danville Independent
a resident of San Ramon Valley High School
on Apr 24, 2013 at 4:37 pm

Concerning all the nutty right wing conspiracy theories of Labor Stats data manipulation: the gains are real. And they have a lot to do with the firepower Obama and the Fed have thrown at fixing the economy over the past few years. Yes, they are NEVER true figures due to the folks who just stopped looking and have fallen off the radar, but this is true at all times: the fact is the same formula has been used for many, many years (over 50),...so we ARE comparing apples to apples. And considering the abyss we were facing due to President Bush's ill-conceived path, we as a Country are much better off....

Posted by Linda
a resident of Monte Vista High School
on Apr 25, 2013 at 8:14 am

These figures do not count those:

* Who have timed out of collecting Unemployment benefits
* The hard working "kids" who graduated from college, and are now having to live back with their parents because they cannot find work
* Those who have recently been reduced to part time employment workers who do not average 30 hours per week are considered "variable-hour employees" under Obamacare, and they are not legally entitled to health benefits from their employer.

We will be seeing more families depending on public assistance - ie, food stamps (CalFresh), National School Lunch Program (NSLP), Medi-Cal, and housing assistance.

I think the point that others have tried to make in this thread, is that the statistics mentioned above were never counted in the overall unemployment rates - not during the Bush administration, the Obama administration, or any other. They are simply an "apple to apple" comparison as pointed out by Danville Independent.

I think that information is meaningful, but to hold the current statistical measures to a standard of qualifying data that have not been considered in the past is unrealistic. To further imply that this long term standard/formula is the brainchild of the current administration to mislead the entire country sounds a bit paranoid.